Abstract

""This essay shows how, more than mere economic objects that can be bought and sold in a free market of capitalism, commodities can serve as contingent nodal points circulating through various cultural relations with profound ethical consequences for how we aim to relate with each other, as well as with the Earth. The political efficacy of boycotts and buycotts, therefore, is not simply an affirmation that supply and demand capitalism ‘‘works.’’ Rather, it pivots on the belief that everyday people can become successful agents of change in the world when they can identify the specific context of a particular culture of circulation, choose a nodal point through which to intervene, and mobilize a public to respond."